NevaLabs: Is smart, personalized news the next big thing?

“Engagement alone is not success. Time well spent will be our guiding star.”

News Impact Summit, Manchester: Co-founders Mark Little (CEO) and Áine Kerr of Neva Labs spoke of their big ambition to combine personalization and artificial intelligence in a news app, at the News Impact Summit in Manchester.

Established only five weeks ago, the venture aims to improve trust in news and give users greater control over their consumer experience. Mark Little draws on the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, which found that only a quarter of respondents think social media does a good job in separating fact from fiction.

"Platforms are becoming the primary means of communication. The problem is there is no ranking. A cute cat video comes in the very same feed as a harrowing scene from Syria,” said Mark Little.

The design of social media is what Little believes has led to a breakdown in trust because “there is no distinguishing between quality news and what isn’t”.

"Platforms are becoming the primary means of communication. The problem is there is no ranking. A cute cat video comes in the very same feed as a harrowing scene from Syria (...) there is no distinguishing between quality news and what isn’t." said Mark Little.

However, Little and Kerr are confident that Neva Labs can tackle this by offering a more personalized experience using artifical intelligence and open source data.

Kerr described how Neva Labs aims to be “a personal assistant for people who want to take conscious control of their news experience and make it more.” The app will also be user-centric with the main metric of success will be time-well spent.

“Engagement alone is not success. Time well spent will be our guiding star.” said Aine Kerr.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, gradually hitting newsrooms and society as a whole. However, automated journalism still requires the right combination of skills, expertise and technology. At Reuters, we are exploring how to best incorporate AI while understanding its current limitations.